1. Social media. Yes, I know, you need to market yourself and be friendly with friends, colleagues and customers. You also need to set aside specific times of the day to do this. Treat this as a business task too. It should be fun and entertaining, but it should not interfere with your work time. Plan those times as part of business building, even if you view it as fun time.

2. Avoid distractions. This is easier said than done, but many people distract themselves by thinking they can take a quick peek at email or Facebook or something else. Do not do this until the allotted time.

3. Don’t let others distract you. If you have a friend who thinks they can text or call you at anytime during the day, be sure to silence your phone so it doesn’t distract you. Close your instant messenger programs. Do not set it to busy or go invisible. If you do that, it’s still in the back of your mind that someone may be on the other end and you need a quick chat with them. Or, they will ignore the busy sign and send a message anyway. There are also people who send offline messages even if it looks like you’re not online. They don’t know you’re invisible but their message still gets to you and distracts you.

4. Only use reference and research websites during work hours. If you must open your browser to do some research, then only do the research and close the browser. Do not allow yourself to get tempted to do a quick check of email or social media.

5. Don’t drop everything because a friend wants a spur of the moment lunch with you. This falls under the above tip of turning off your cell phone. Yes, spontaneity can be fun, but it also has its place. People need to know that you can’t drop everything for their whims. This is especially true if you work from home. If you start allowing these minor instances, it will only get worse and they will think they can interrupt you any time they please.

Start actively focusing on your work tasks and mentally prepare yourself to stop allowing distractions to take over your day. This is your business you’re trying to build or run. Don’t let anyone or anything interfere with it during your work time. It will pay off in the long run if you get super focused and control the distractions in your life.

What do you do to make sure you get er done? Leave a comment, I read them all.

Phoo – Flickr:DailyPic

If you aren’t consistent in your daily work habits and maintaining your focus, it’s likely you’ll spend most of the day just spinning your wheels. Productivity is the measure of proficiency. Now that doesn’t mean you have to do everything perfectly, it simply means you need to take actionable steps to get things accomplished. One way to do this is to break down your projects into manageable, daily tasks.

However, unless you decide to have a productive day, every day, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get er done. Productivity, like many other worthwhile things in life, is a mindset. It goes along with a success mindset. Having the right mindset is crucial to any endeavor, especially when it comes to time management and getting results.

Try using daily affirmations. Each morning, before you begin work, you can look in the mirror and repeat affirmations to yourself. Some good ones include:

• I am exceptionally productive.
• I do my work diligently each day so I have more free time.
• I am in control of my time. I make the best use of my time.
• I manage my daily tasks with ease.

Spend time working on your confidence. People often hold themselves back because they lack confidence in themselves. Sometimes we hold ourselves back as a way to self-sabotage. Something has been instilled in us that causes us to believe we can’t do a good job or we don’t want to take the responsibility for our actions. Get away from this mindset. You do not have to be perfect to accomplish something, you simply need to start (and finish) your task list. Building your confidence will help you develop a better mindset for getting your work done.

Set goals. If you don’t have goals, it’s hard to decide what is important and critical to work on. You’ll likely end up flitting the day away because you don’t have a goal or an end result in mind. Write down your biggest work related goal and then break it down into smaller milestone goals. This will help you to realize you’re making progress.

Listen to or read something motivational. Get the right mindset on. Follow a busy person on social media, someone who always seems to be uber productive. Let this inspire you to become as productive or even more productive than that person.

Many people get dressed for work, even if they work from home. As you are getting ready (or dressed) for your work day, be sure to put on your most important garment—your mindset.

Make a commitment with yourself. Decide you will be more productive and less distracted and then take steps to make it happen. Part of your mindset and your productivity begins with making a commitment. If you aren’t committed, you’ll waste the time you should be doing the steps to get the results you want.

What do you do to make sure you get er done? Leave a comment, I read them all.

Photo – Flickr:DailyPic

1. Focus on the task at hand. Master this!

2. Check email infrequently. Do not obsess over email or social media. Work time should be productive time. Most people do not expect you to sit on top of your email all day. If they do, you need to explain that you have specific times for checking and responding to email.

3. Do ONE task at a time. Multi-tasking is a time waster. I talk about this in my book Get ER Done: The Green Beret Guide to Productivity.  We didn’t multi-task much in the Special Forces.  It was a good way to make a fatal mistake.  I know you think you can get three things done in half the time, but it simply does not work that way if your attention is spread across several tasks. Do one thing at a time and you will get more accomplished in less time.

4. Find or develop and master shortcuts. If you can’t develop your own shortcuts, then ask around and find out what other people do as shortcuts to daily mundane tasks.   For example, if you create products and put an About Me section at the end, save that into a Word file so you can copy and paste it into all future projects.

5. Do it right the first time. This one will take some mastering. There’s a saying, “Of course I don’t look busy. I did it right the first time.” This is so true. It may take some work, we do get better by repetition, but strive to do it right the first time so you don’t have to constantly re-do everything you work on.  I had a team sergeant when I was first starting out in Special Forces.  He always reminded us to do it right the first time.  He asked for a professional job no matter what we were doing painting the barracks or cleaning our guns.  This saved time in the long run.

6. Use your peak times to your advantage. Pay attention to the time of day you have the most focus and are most alert. Do the difficult tasks during this time and save the mundane “auto-pilot” tasks for when you aren’t at your peak performance.

7. Write it down. Keep an on-going list of things you do throughout the day. This will also help you keep track of your time. If you send out 3 emails, write a little note in your journal. Be sure to note who the emails went to and the subjects covered. At the end of the day you’ll know exactly what you accomplished and what wasted your time. Plus, if you ever need a reference to look back on, you have it all written down.

8. Take breaks and clear your mind. If you start feeling fuzzy headed and lose your focus, it’s time to get up and move around. Go for a short, brisk walk, enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. If you keep coffee or tea at your desk, then take time to go enjoy a cup away from your workstation.

9. Close all computer programs that aren’t work related. You don’t need your task bar full of distractions. Just glancing down and seeing you have your browser open to Facebook can distract you in an instant.

10. Prioritize. This seems simple, but sometimes it isn’t. Take a look at the things you want to get done and decide exactly what you need to get done. These are often two different things. Ask yourself which things actually go to building your business. If writing an opinion piece for your blog isn’t business related, then save it to write at a non-work time. During work hours, only write about things that increase your business.

I talk more in depth about some of these topics in my book. As Green Berets we didn’t have access to any secret weapons or powers. We just used our time and other resources much more efficiently and were able to get amazing results.

What do you do to make sure you get er done? Leave a comment, I read them all.

Phoo – Flickr:DailyPic

Here are a few tips to help you get prepared for a get er done day.

Make Lists

Make a list of things you need to accomplish in a week or a month. Break this list down into daily manageable tasks.

A lot of really get er done people make a list of things they want to accomplish each month. They also break this down into weekly steps so they know what to accomplish each week. However, they also break this down even further, into daily actionable steps.

If you’re not used to doing this, you may think it takes up too much time, but in reality, it will save you time in the long run because you can get focused a lot quicker.

Actually Read the Lists

Read your daily task list before going to bed and then again as soon as you sit down to work.

If you end your work day at 5:00 pm, you need to leave the work in your office and enjoy your family time. But, it’s also a good idea to look over tomorrow’s list right before you go to bed. This allows your brain to prepare itself for the work ahead. Your mind never sleeps, even if you’re asleep, your mind is still awake and working away. You might as well give it something get er done to work on while you sleep.

Make New Lists

At the end of each work day, either make a new task list for tomorrow, or double check the list if you’ve made it ahead of time.

This is similar to the idea of actually reading your lists, but this is also when you can adjust your next day’s task list if you need to. Maybe you had some free time today and worked on something that was on the next day’s list. You’ll want to mark this off and possibly fill it in with another task.

Set Up Reminders and Timers

Timers and reminders are wonderful tools. They not only help you remember what you need to do and when, but they also allow you to focus on work. It’s much easier to get super focused when you’re not watching the clock. Simply set a timer and get busy. The little bell will let you know what’s next on your schedule.

Track Your Time

Track your time with a program like Chrometa. Programs like Chrometa will track everything you do on your computer. If you’re working in Word, on email, or something else, these types of programs will record it all. This gives you an “eye-opening” visual of where your time actually goes. If you find you’re spending too much time on email, you can start cutting back and spend more time on work.

Focus

Prepare to focus on one item at a time. Do not multi-task.. I talk about this more in my book Get Er Done: The Green Beret Guide to Productivity. People have been falsely lulled into the idea that musti-tasking will accomplish more. For one thing, it doesn’t. For another thing, if your attention is divided, neither project is getting your best. Always focus on one thing at a time and give it your best. I think you’ll discover that you get more work done. Plus it’ll be better quality work.

Mindset

Have the proper mindset for work. If you need to meditate, listen to music or read something inspirational, do it!

Almost everything in life worth doing requires a healthy, positive mindset. Your work deserves the same attention and mindset as other areas of your life. Get the right mindset on and you might just have your best day, every day.

Organize

Organize and tidy your work space. This should be done at the end of each work day, but if you were tired or had to stop suddenly, always make sure it’s ready before you start work.

Close at Hand

Gather all the materials you need to work and have them close at hand.  If you have to get up and down ten times to go get something, that is not the get er done way. It’s wasting your time. Think about the things you’ll need before you start work and keep them close at hand.

Get Rid of Distractions

In my book, I tell how before missions we were separated from other teams and cut off from media to eliminate distractions.  It will work for you too.  Turn off distractions like cell phones, email, instant messengers, Skype, get off of social media. Distractions are the biggest cause of failure and poor quality work. Turn all of these things off and give your work the attention it deserves. You’ll have more free time to enjoy being social after you’ve accomplished all of your daily tasks. You’ll also feel better about yourself.

Put these get er done techniques into practice and you will find yourself being more productive with less effort. All it takes is getting started. Remember you don’t have to get it perfect. Just get it going.

What do you do to be productive? Leave a comment, I read them all.

Photo – Flickr:Andrea_R

Lately, I’ve been playing the “what if you were wrong” game with my coaching clients. It goes like this:

Client: Jane at XYZ Company hasn’t called me back. They must not want to hire me.
C.J.: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:Hmm, maybe I should call her and ask what’s up?

In this example, a moment’s consideration about the possibility that his thinking might be off base transformed my client’s discouraged paralysis into productive action. Examining where you might be wrong about marketing can be an extremely useful exercise for any entrepreneur. Consider these examples:

Client: I don’t want to limit myself by choosing a target market. I think I’ll market my business to anyone who might need my services.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:I might be spreading myself too thin if I market to everybody. Maybe it would be a good idea to narrow it down a bit.

Client:: The economy is so bad right now, I’m never going to get any big-ticket business. I’d better concentrate on small contracts until things pick up again.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:I guess that could be a mistake. I’ll never get any big-ticket business unless I ask for it, right?

Client: I introduced myself to all those prospects already. They’ll call me if they need me.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:They could forget about me if they don’t hear from me in a while. Maybe I should try to keep in touch.

Client: I heard that social networking is the best way for solopreneurs to market themselves. I’m going to stop my other marketing and put all my effort into Facebook.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:Maybe I should ask some other solopreneurs what their experience has been first.

Client: I don’t like making follow-up calls. It should do just as well to send emails instead.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:I could lose out on a lot of sales if people don’t read my emails. Maybe I should make a few calls, too.

Client: I got a great offer from my professional association to run a display ad in the conference program. I bet it will bring in lots of clients.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:Perhaps I should call my friend who advertised last year and see what results she had.

Client: Now that my website is up, I should start getting plenty of business online without having to do much about marketing.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client: Well, I think pay-per-click ads would be a great way to attract more clients to my website.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that, too?
Client:Maybe I shouldn’t let go my offline marketing until I see how well I do online.

As you can see, questioning your assumptions about marketing can lead to designing a much more solid strategy. You can try asking yourself what if you were wrong, but it can be even more powerful to have a friend, colleague, or coach ask you. And, as in the last example above, keep asking until you feel satisfied with your new conclusions.

There’s one more type of assumption about marketing you might want to question – not what you’re planning to do, but how you feel about doing it:

Client: Marketing is scary. It’s uncomfortable, too. I’ll never be any good at it.
Coach: What if you were wrong about that?
Client:I guess I can learn to do it better. Maybe then it won’t be so scary or uncomfortable.

The next time you decide to do something about marketing – or not do it – take a moment and play the “what if you were wrong” game. You may discover an entirely new perspective, and ultimately, be right more often.

Note from Mike – This applies to not just marketing. How many times do you or someone else say, “I don’t do this or that?”  Take a minute to think about what if you  were wrong.

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!^TM:  A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants and Coaches.  Mike Martel is a licensed facilitator for Get Clients Now! delivering this road-tested program to entrepreneurs, businesses, and organizations.  To either attend a Get Clients Now! teleseminar or bring it to your location get the details here.

Even better, there are local chapters that provide free counseling and workshops.  The counseling and workshops are provided by volunteers with business experience in the community. I applied and was accepted to be a mentor for my local chapter.

I talk over and over again about the power of leverage. SCORE is one source of leverage.  They aren’t going to work with a business owner on a long term basis, but are a  good resource to put in your tool chest.

Let me know if you have used SCORE in the past and your experience of them. I read all the comments.

Photo – Flickr:Shashi Bellamkonda

When you see the President, there are of course, Secret Service agents in thebackground.  Each one of these agents, is prepared to give his life for the protection of the President.  They are a brave group who take their jobs deadly seriously.  You have probably seen the movies such as “Line of Fire.”  What you probably haven’t noticed are the black SUVs parked in the background.

CAT Teams

These SUVs hold the Counter Assault Team (CAT). The SUV is full of guys who could easily play pro football.  They are armed with machine guns, grenades, and rocket launchers.  The CAT team has one mission.  The President will not be taken PERIOD…They will do what it takes to ensure his safety.  When the CAT team takes action, they let nothing stand in their way.

 You aren’t going to make it as a Maverick

We think we can walk solo in the world.  We think that we have it all going on.  When someone asks, “who do you depend on,” it is pretty tempting to reply with some absolute answer like “no one”, “only yourself” or “God”

I’ve talked before in the blog about our two man rule in the military.  We never went anywhere alone. You can never cover your own blindside.  We had another rule, use overwhelming force whenever possible. In the end, it saves lives on both sides.  You see this when police take down a subject. They pile on with as many officers as they can muster.  It subdues the subject very quickly, takes away the will to struggle and protects the officers from injury.  You can’t do this by yourself.

You need people to rely on.  You need a CAT team in your life.  Who can you depend on to keep you out of trouble?  Is there someone who will give their all for you?

Interdependence – 1+1= 3

The cool part of this is that when you bring people in to be part of your CAT team, you become part of their CAT team.  This interdependence is what starts creating the magic of getting things done, creating amazing results.

I have built this into my life several ways. My family is a CAT team.  I am active in my community and church with small groups, people that I can count on. I have a couple mastermind groups  on different topics.  I also work in a coaching role, both as the coach and as the coachee.  Either way, these are people I can count on as my CAT team.

Who do you have in your life as your CAT Team?

P.S.Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you learned. I read them all…

Photo – Flickr:Dissolved

Just a feedback mechanism?

The article goes as far as proposing that there is nothing wrong with having a young life coach; they are only charged with helping clients to hear themselves and to hold themselves accountable to articulated goals.  I disagree.  I believe the role of a coach is broader than only sitting on the phone and listening and keeping someone on track.  There are roadblocks to avoid, pitfalls to dodge. An experienced coach will help their coaching students out of these traps.

You don’t know what you don’t know

An old saying we had in Special Operations was, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”  We countered this by pairing junior people with senior people.  Each specialty had a junior and senior combo; weapons, commo, medical, even the officers.  We would never dream of sending out two junior, inexperienced people on a mission alone. 

Results Matter

So as not to discriminate against the young, I would add to the  statement, “Experience matters” and results matter.  Results being the critical component.  Look of a coach/mentor that has garnered the results you desire on a consistent basis.  You wouldn’t want a lawyer who has only tried a couple cases.  If you or someone dear to you need heart surgery, you would not want a surgeon just out of school, you would want one who has perform the procedure many times over.

When I first considered coaching, I made an inventory of life experiences:  my military experiences, my world travel, my decades of marriage, battles with every kind of hardship imaginable, business success, my own coaching experience.  This inventory convinced me of my value as a coach. 

No guarantees

Unfortunately, this trend of thinking that experience doesn’t matter follow the cult of celebrity we have these days.  There is a lack of value on substance.   While there are no guarantees that years of experience, of having been able to get er done when the chips are down will result always in success, any sort of odds maker will give you much bettor odds on an experienced coach. I think it is ridiculous to claim that experience in whatever subject you are coaching in doesn’t matter.

What do you think?  Leave a comment, I read them all.

Photo-Flickr:jtalan

Service based businesses are best way to get these “side hustles” going.  With the aid of the Internet, you can find people all over the world who will pay for your expertise or services.  Remember you just have to know more than they do about a particular subject for your services to useful to them.

The Hard Part

The hard part is finding these clients and making them aware of your services.

Client prospecting is often hands down one of the primary ways many businesses fall short. Business owners either don’t have the time or don’t have the know-how to market their services properly. As a result their businesses flounder and revenues drop. Not cool!

But it really doesn’t have to be such a grim sounding story.

Finding new clients isn’t as hard as you might currently think when you’ve got a few creative ways with which to do it hidden up your sleeve. I know, I know. You’re feeling massively uncreative at the moment. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

Awhile back I presented an ecourse on 10 Ways to Get More Clients.  Here is the video we made of the presentation.

10 Ways to Get More Clients

Here is a link to the transcript of the ecourse – 10 Ways to Get More Clients

The Next Step

If you want to take this to the next step contact me about my GET CLIENTS NOW!™ Coaching program where I work with you to establish the specific steps you need to get your business to where you want. I act as your accountability coach to make it easy for you to create the habits to create a steady stream of clients.

Also I encourage you to sign up for updates from the site. Besides getting an email when information such as this is posted, you also get several bonus documents.  Just sign up at the box to the right.

Do you have any more favorite ways to get new clients?  Leave it as a comment.  I read them all.

Later in my career, I set up exercises throughout Europe.  I had to go and convince a local government to allow us to us their facilities for a training exercise. I couldn’t force them to give or do anything for us.  They had to want to.  Using proper negotiation skills were the key.

We’ve all seen instances where an irate customer is berating the counter clerk at the airport, or venting her venom on the checkout cashier at the mini-mart. Usually, we look at these out-of-control people with a mixture of pity and embarrassment. But I also look at them and think, “Don’t they know they’re alienating the one person who can fix their problem?”

Think about it.

You missed your flight and you’re not going to be able to make the big meeting in Houston. You approach the gate agent and choose one of two approaches:

1.  You start blustering and yelling, telling her you’re going to have her fired if she doesn’t get you on the next flight immediately, or
2. You approach her calmly and politely, asking her for her assistance in meeting your goal.

Who would YOU be more likely to go out of your way to help?

Customer service people are often the lowest on the corporate totem pole. They typically aren’t particularly well-paid, they don’t have a lot of seniority, and they don’t have a ton of power. But one thing that they can control is how much they’re willing to go out of their way to help you out. Be rude and nasty, and they’re going to slam the virtual door in your face. Be kind and polite, and you just may find out that the rules are bent in your favor.

This is not to say there isn’t a time and a place for getting angry, or escalating the issue. But you need to be in control of yourself. If the person you’re negotiating with is actually fearing for his or her personal safety, they’re not only going to shut you down, they may call Security on you as well! Let’s see you make that flight to Houston while you’re shut up in a holding pen.

Just Step Away

If you feel yourself losing control or spinning into anger, step away. Let the other person know your emotions are getting the best of you, and you’ll get back in touch when you’ve calmed down a bit. If this sounds like you have to bite back your pride, so be it. It’s a lot easier on the ego to take a five minute break, rather than looking like a fool in front of a store full or airport full of people.

Keep reminding yourself of your ultimate goal, too. Your goal is not to make the other person back down or feel bad; your goal is to get as much of your desired outcome as possible. View the other party as your ally, not your enemy.

Find Out What They Want

You may think that once the other person has had their chance to share their position, it’s your turn to spew. But how you share your position has a great deal of bearing on the outcome of the conversation. Here are some tips for sharing your perspective:

1. Don’t get defensive. You might be inclined to start out by telling the other person just how wrong they are. Stop! Defending your position or attacking them puts you on opposite teams; we’re in search of a win-win, so find something – some point, no matter how small – about which you can agree.
2. It could be as simple as, “I agree with you that Sally and Regina have a later curfew. I’m willing to explore the topic with you.” This lets the other party know you heard them and you are searching for common ground.

Just Ask for Help

Ask for help. One fantastic technique is to ask the person to help you. “I’m having trouble with the way shifts are scheduled for next week; can you help me understand?” brings the issue to the table without making the other person the enemy. Get them on your side. People – particularly those in customer service – like to help when they can. Make them feel useful and powerful.
Ask for what you want. Make your request clear so there’s no question what you see as the desired outcome. “I’d like it if you could reverse the charges this month and help me figure out how to lower my overall bill,” for example, is a much more powerful statement than, “I got charged for 100 texts this month.” What you want is clear in the first request; the second leaves nowhere for the other person to go. They could easily reply with, “So?” You will need to give them more information before they can do anything, so why not make your request clear?

Shut Up

Shut up. One of the worst things you can do in negotiating is to negotiate against yourself. Once you’ve made a request, be quiet. Let the other person respond. If you keep talking, you will keep conceding, often unnecessarily. In order to calm the urge to talk, some salespeople tell themselves that every word they speak costs them money. Often, that’s true!

Knowing how to properly phrase your own request is key to successful negotiating. Being able to share your thoughts and feelings without alienating the other person will help you maintain a position of strength and not give away unnecessary concessions.

Getting  What You Want and Need

Negotiations take place all throughout our lives, from interactions with our family to interactions with our friends, co-workers, clients and bosses. While it is possible to use brute force, loud voices and the intimidation factor to try to get what you want, there are more successful – and less frightening – methods.

Negotiation is a skill, just like water skiing, pistol shooting, speaking French, or woodworking. The more you practice, the better you’ll be.  It can seem overwhelming at first, but pick one skill or principle each week to focus on. After being involved in a negotiation, review how it went. What worked? What didn’t? What can you try differently the next time?

Over time, you’ll see your negotiation skills slowly and steadily building, until soon you’ll be the one people turn to to negotiate for them.

P.S. Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you learned. I read them all…